Mathison shook his head.

"You didn't like it?" astonished.

"I'll see it before I sail."

"Then you weren't in the theater to-night?"

"Oh yes; in Q. I was the ass who laughed out loud when the whole house was so still you could have heard a pin drop."

"You?... I heard that, and wondered what had happened. But if you saw the play...."

"That's just the point. I wasn't an audience; I was a spectator."

Something in his eyes, a lurking fire, warned her not to press in this direction. After all, he had not come to see the play; he had come to see her. And the knowledge was like the warmth from a wood fire.

"A sailorman! No doubt a girl in every port."